Major Maintenance includes maintenance service at 15K, 30K, 45K, 60K, 75K, 90K mileage. Minor Maintenance includes maintenance service at 10K, 20K, 25K, 35K, 40K, 50K, 55K, 65K, 70K, 80K, 85K, 95K,100K mileage. Valid only at Wilde Lexus of Sarasota. Plus any applicable tax, hazard or disposal fees. Subject to availability. Must present coupon at time of write-up. Not valid with any other offer or discount. May not be applied to previous purchases. No cash value. See your Wilde Lexus service advisor for details. Expires 11/30/15.

We’d like to extend a huge thank-you to everyone who donated to the Mayor’s Feed the Hungry Food Drive. Overall 45 tons of food was collected and 2,350 turkeys were given away and all the food has been distributed to the food pantries. From our family to yours, we’d like to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving this Thursday.

Valid only at Wilde Lexus of Sarasota. Plus any applicable tax, hazard or disposal fees. Subject to availability. Must present coupon at time of write-up. Not valid with any other offer or discount. May not be applied to previous purchases. No cash value. See your Wilde Lexus service advisor for details. Dealer not responsible for typos or omissions. Expires 11/30/15.

Pricing analysis performed on 11/11/2015. Horsepower calculations based on trim engine configuration. Fuel economy calculations based on original manufacturer data for trim engine configuration. Please confirm the accuracy of the included equipment by calling us prior to purchase.

Last month, a switch was flipped at a sprawling auto factory in Georgetown, Ky., and with it, Toyotastarted building Lexus cars in the United States for the first time.

It is something of a long-awaited homecoming for a brand that was originally conceived of as an American-focused creation: a way of attracting well-to-do American buyers with a moniker unburdened by the Toyota name’s middle-of-the-road image.

But Lexus vehicles have never been manufactured in the United States, until now. Adding the 50,000 Lexus ES 350 models to be produced each year will transform the Kentucky plant into the largest Toyota factory by volume in the world.

“It underscores just how important the American market is to Toyota, and how growing its manufacturing capability here is a key to its future success,” said Mike Jackson, director of North American product forecasting at IHS Automotive.

That Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, will have its largest factory in the American South is only the latest example of a building boom in the United States by foreign automakers like Toyota, Mercedes-Benz and others. Domestic automakers, by contrast, have resisted building new plants in the United States even as they have announced billions in new investments in their existing production facilities.

*Starting at $289.99, some models higher. Valid only at Wilde Lexus of Sarasota. Plus any applicable tax, hazard or disposal fees. Subject to availability. Must present coupon at time of write-up. Not valid with any other offer or discount. May not be applied to previous purchases. No cash value. See your Wilde Lexus service advisor for details. Expires 11/30/15.

Lexus has formally confirmed its long-anticipated North American race program for 2016, with an expected IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship campaign for the newly announced F Performance Racing.

The WeatherTech Championship portion wasn’t officially announced in a media release, but was strongly hinted at.

The team name is a rebranding of RSR Racing, as past teammates Paul Gentilozzi and Scott Pruett have come together to form the program.

The V8-powered Lexus RC F GT3 will continue its testing and development program before a mid-to-late season debut for a limited schedule, in anticipation of a multi-car, full-season effort in 2017.

“A core mission of F Performance Racing was to strengthen the Lexus’ F brand by applying lessons gleaned from racing, while nurturing an engineering culture that transfers that knowledge to dynamic, high performance passenger car development,” said Jeff Bracken, group vice president and general manager, Lexus division.

“We are very excited about what this partnership and race effort can mean for the brand in the years to come,”

For Pruett, it marks the official end of his tenure at Chip Ganassi Racing, after racing with the team in either the GRAND-AM Rolex Series or IMSA’s TUDOR United SportsCar Championship since 2004. He’ll likely go for a record sixth overall win at next year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona with another Prototype entrant.

“When Lexus left motorsports, I pledged to them that I would be there to help them return when that time came,” Pruett said.

“That time is now and I could not be more ecstatic to be representing Lexus as a performance brand ambassador and on the track in the F Performance RC F GT3.”

Gentilozzi, who has put his PC equipment up for sale, looks forward to the reunion and a return to the GT ranks for the first time since the ill-fated Jaguar RSR program, which ended at the conclusion of 2011 in what is now the GT Le Mans class (then American Le Mans Series GT).

“An opportunity to reunite with North America’s greatest sports car driver and a great friend, Scott Pruett and Lexus, a globally prestigious brand validating their performance potential, is a racer’s dream,” Gentilozzi said.

“(It’s) one that would put an exclamation point on anyone’s motorsports career.”

We want to thank our veterans for all they have done and continue to do for our country. The Sarasota Veteran’s Day Parade, which is sponsored by the Sarasota Patriotic Observance Committee, starts at the intersection of Osprey and US 301 at 10:00 a.m. and proceeds down Main Street to J. D. Hamel Park on Gulfstream where a ceremony is held at approximately 11:00 a.m. We will be providing cars for the parade and hope you will join us in saluting our heroes.